John Cusack plays a writer famous for debunking haunted house claims. When he receives a mysterious postcard about the Manhattan-based Dolphin Hotel, and the cursed history of one of its suites, Room 1408, he can't resist the opportunity spend a night there so he can quash another ghost hoax.
There is much I liked about this horror yarn: the performances of Cusack (the endearing swagger from his 1980s roles on full display), and Samuel L. Jackson as the Mephistophelian hotel manager; the production design; and the ominous use of the Carpenters song We've Only Just Begun, which signals the nightmare Room 1408 is about to unleash. A neat twist late in the second act recalibrates the movie, as an overload of special effects was starting to make things redundant. Room 1408 borrows from The Shining, not surprising in that both are based on books by Stephen King.
There is much I liked about this horror yarn: the performances of Cusack (the endearing swagger from his 1980s roles on full display), and Samuel L. Jackson as the Mephistophelian hotel manager; the production design; and the ominous use of the Carpenters song We've Only Just Begun, which signals the nightmare Room 1408 is about to unleash. A neat twist late in the second act recalibrates the movie, as an overload of special effects was starting to make things redundant. Room 1408 borrows from The Shining, not surprising in that both are based on books by Stephen King.